The Good Life Book

Resources

Wed, 10 May 2017 20:23:11 -0700

Master list of additional resources

The Good Life Book 5 Year Anniversary edition:

1. Part One update: Complete Model Medium | LinkedIn

2. Part Two update: M.E.A.N.S. framework on Read More

The Well: The Five Levels of Success.

Wed, 06 Sep 2023 15:21:39 -0700

What is success?

Most of us, if not all of us, want to be successful or rather, if you’re reading this, more successful than you see yourself today. If you’re reading this then you might very well be at the start of a journey to transform yourself, and the lives of those around you.

What is success? What is it in your mind? Think quickly and write down your answer.

What is success is a question that pops up in quiet moments, on vacation, when we have pause to look at life and what is really important, perhaps also after a crisis, or series of them.

What we believe success is, powerfully guides not only our work and life direction, but how we feel about those things now, and as we reach milestones on the way to our vision of success.

The challenge is that we often define success too narrowly and as a result we either never finally reach “it”, or don’t actually feel sustainably fulfilled or happy when we finally get there.

What is success?

This article is about a model called The Well, which I’ve developed to answer that question, to get to know yourself and what you really want better, then to act on that to make your vision of success a reality.

Here is a picture of The Well:

Let’s begin with the concentric circles. Each represents a different level of success.

These are:

Attainment i.e. what I have. (things: money, job titles, possessions...)
Gratification i.e. what I feel. (experiences: seeking pleasure, avoiding pain...)
Importance i.e. what I need. (needs: relationships, health, meaningful work...)
Meaning i.e. what I stand for. (values: the meaning making process)
Being i.e. what I am. (existence: connection, big “L” Love, Self-realization/ actualization...)

In principle, the level called Attainment is what most of us associate with success, at least at first,...Read More

The Wheel Five Spokes Personal Status Check

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 15:04:03 -0700

Here is The Wheel/Five Spokes Personal Status Check form.

It is available for free in Adobe PDF and Microsoft PowerPoint format by clicking the button below.

These files are for informational and non-commercial use, and subject to the Legal Disclaimer: https://www.totallifecomplete.com/legal

Enjoy!

Get started quicker

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 08:29:10 -0800

Go!

There is a creativity technique where if you want to come up with one idea, then you should try to come up with a hundred.

After writing the past few articles in the "Life" series, it struck me again that I'm really slow at taking action on realizations. Perhaps we all are, and at least I get there in the end. But, how could I have gotten started quicker? In my case that was on media/production. I had the "plane" realization in 2009, but it took me until 2015 to write my first public article, 2017 before I did a podcast, 2018 before I started doing video regularly...

There is another "golden rule" in creativity and that is to write down things that come to mind that seem interesting, uncommon, or that you're constantly drawn to (one example for me was the idea of being an audio engineer, another was learning to play the guitar, for me the word "uncommon" itself had a nice ring to it so I wrote an article about it later). Let's make that Tip #0 for this list, and in this case I can really vouch for the usefulness of it (not sure I can say the same for all of the others!) Keep detailed notes of your ideas on your notepad / computer / phone (I do all three).

So, using the technique I talked about earlier I'm going to come up with as many ideas as I can in 5 minutes on how I/you could go faster. Disclaimer, this is just a braindump, I'm not necessarily telling you to do all of this, but it is food for thought, and it might point you towards an idea that works for you.

Here is what I came up with in the first round:

Do a course (preferably in short chunks/online)
Get 1-on-1 coaching
Go to a meetup
Join a mailing list / find sites on social media to follow
Make a small investment e.g. buy a cheap guitar / camera etc and try it you
Commit to presenting something in...Read More

The Good Life Book - Original Introduction

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 18:56:06 -0800

This article is a part of a series called "Life", where I revisit The Good Life Book (2017), and other (unpublished) drafts and notes relating to the book, and offer an up-to-date commentary on the topics in the book, as at February 2021.

A lot of us have been through a lot in recent times, and I want to do what I can to try and highlight and share material that might help you. Also, there were many (perhaps too many) ideas in the book, and it was written in a time of "heavy" transition for me. I'm interested to see how the book stacks up several years down the track, and what I see as the key messages.

Here, I look back at the original published introduction to the book (the new/current version replaced it a few months later in May 2017). I'm excited to look back at this version of the introduction with fresh eyes. Obviously, I'd chosen shortly after publishing to revise the introduction. But did that actually make it better? And what was I feeling and trying to get at when I wrote the original?

Original Introduction (March 2017)

Several years ago, at the age of 36, I had a realization that shook my assumptions about life and how to live it.

Reclining in my seat on a flight from Nairobi to London, I thought, I’ve made it. I’m living the good life.

As an international business consultant, I’d spent the past decade flying around the world, advising companies on how to optimize performance. I’d visited every continent, excepting Antarctica (though I did glimpse it from the window of a flight from Buenos Aires to Sydney). I’d risen steadily up the corporate ranks. And I was making decent money.

But I couldn’t help wondering: is that it? Before the flight landed, I was restlessly looking ahead. Was this really how I wanted to spend the rest of my life? I mostly enjoyed the work, the travel, the status, the perks, the income. But my “success” felt a bit hollow.

I wasn’t...Read More

Life: Point X is in flux

Tue, 02 Mar 2021 16:10:50 -0800

This article is a part of a series called "Life", where I revisit The Good Life Book (2017), and unpublished drafts, and offer an up-to-date commentary as at February 2021. Here, I ponder why so far I've found it really hard to update the book in any meaningful way.

The next article in the series is about the original introduction to The Good Life Book. That article was a surprisingly difficult one to write, and that difficulty seems to be, yet again for me, a microcosm of the overall black/rabbit hole that I’ve experienced while:

trying to write an updated edition of The Good Life Book
comparing ideas from a future book Complete with The Good Life Book, and in general
opining on life or personal and professional growth in the context of my own journey

As I sit down to write these things I kind of go into a recursive loop, and feel like I’ve entered a hall of mirrors. I decided to dig into why this might be, and guessed the answer might be useful to you as well as I.

The he general reason for the difficulty, I think, is that I feel that I haven’t yet reached “solid ground” or a destination a.k.a. a new stable point "X" on my own change journey. I've experienced and done so much new stuff, yet I'm still in a state of becoming.

In many ways X (where I am now) is now less clear than when I wrote the book, and a moving target. In other words, X is in flux. And while that is the case, it is difficult to find the right point of view to write from.

Memories are Spongy

Steve Jobs has said that "you can only join the dots in reverse". Things don't make sense until they do! I believe this, and I feel that that it is definitely part of what I'm experiencing at the moment.

I can see different variations of a big picture but can't always see the way forward so I'm trying to follow my gut/intuition on what the right next...Read More

Unpublished: The Good Life Preface and Introduction

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 12:49:32 -0800

This article is a part of a series called "Life", where I revisit The Good Life Book, and unpublished drafts, and offer an up-to-date commentary as at February 2021. Here, I look back at the original original (unpublished until now) preface and introduction to the book.

The photo was taken at Tanah Lot temple in Bali, while I was on a scuba diving trip there (a few months before meeting my wife to be). I'd originally wanted the photo on the cover of the book, since it seemed to have the same sunny, pure, magical, energy of life that I'd experience years later in Sydney when I wrote the poem Whale Beach (audio LINK), and penned the original preface to the book.

- Brett Cowell Dallas Feb 2021.

Preface – Sydney, Australia February 2015

I’m looking down the hill at groups of surfers in the ocean at Whale Beach. The golden sun is setting behind. This vantage point opens up my consciousness, revealing a secret in plain sight.

The surfers who come out here day after day in all sorts of conditions are not doing it to pursue happiness, but to pursue life.

People surf for: challenge, self-expression, being at one with nature, adrenaline, euphoria, being alone and with mates, travel, fitness and even as an identity. Asking if surfing makes a surfer happy seems to demonstrate a lack of understanding of what the thing is.

Nevertheless we can spend our whole lives chasing happiness like it is a rare gem to be captured and put in a display cabinet. Happiness, balance and meaning are not things or single-shot goals, but outcomes of an ongoing process, philosophy and practice of living.

We all seem to be looking for a good life.

This guide is being released at a time when there are many...Read More

What's in a name?

Fri, 19 Feb 2021 09:28:23 -0800

Big sunburnt sky

Deep ocean blue

Australia

Chestnut muscled surfers

Boards crafted in ancient ways

To run with the water

Shapes bobbing, diving, flying,

tales told, legends to uphold

then…waves roll

Gasping for air.

Tumbling over and over

Weight of water above

and thundering around

World upturned

The point you were making is

not important

Existence is a gift

Impermanent

That light you follow

can save you, or enslave you

if you don’t see true…

A dream of water abating

Cool release for a fleeting

and universally beating heart

Days when you live

the salty life

Sea eternal, and you as one

Or return to shore

board broken cleanly

in two

Humbled

yet Alive

- Whale Beach by Brett Cowell

I wrote this poem a short time after being tossed in the Sydney surf, later, while watching surfers at another beach.

Did you know that The Good Life Book was originally going to be called A Professional's Guide to Happiness? Looking down at the surfers that day, made me realize that there was something deeper than "just" happiness to chase after, there was life itself. So on that day, I changed the name.

Normally, life surrounds us like air and we don't even notice it. But at that moment I became aware of the buzz and energy of life all around me. It was a tangible feeling, an electricity. The feeling lasted for months afterwards. I can still recall it, years later.

Now. I kind of wish that I'd called the book "Life" or something, since the good life has many different and contradictory meanings to different people.

A lot of us have been through a lot in the past year (and, in fact, there is always somebody going through something that shakes their foundations). Most of us would settle right now for a return to some sort of normality. "Normal" has...Read More

Help with "What does good look like?" exercises

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 10:31:17 -0700

Document purpose:

The “What does good look like?” (WDGLL) method seeks to help you to know, and get more quickly what you need out of life, by creating a “look and feel” of the desirable future state of key parts of your life, and also building self-insight

The attached PDF document is intended to support your completion of key steps in the WDGLL method i.e. the Life Score question in Chapter 4 of The Good Life Book and the “What does good look like?” questions in each of Chapters 5-9 of the book, relating to the Five Pillars of Vocation, People, Health, Spirit and Expression

The ABC model

Tue, 30 May 2017 14:56:12 -0700

The ABC model is a performance transformation framework that can help you to accelerate your personal and professional growth, and realize your potential. The article explains the ABC model so that you can use the model to help visualize, organize and track your change journey. (Click here for a related article that maps the ABC model to The Good Life Book)

In my work as a management consultant and coach I use a transformation mindset to examine problems and opportunities in a particular situation. In brief, transformation is about moving from where you are right now, to a desirable future state such that you are changed as part of the process. While other approaches, such as motivational thinking, or quick fixes might produce a short-term change in behavior, a transformation approach aims to lock-in and make sustainable the positive effects of a change.

All of this is highly relevant in the case of personal change since I think that we want the results of time and energy invested in change to last, and to provide a new baseline level of performance that we can then build on to reach our potential.

The ABC model is shown in the diagram below:

In the model, Point A is where you are today, Point B is where you want to be in the future, and C is the course of action that gets you there. Additionally, when you use the model in practice, D is what you must Do in terms of the next concrete steps, and E refers to Execution, or taking action.

Now, let me describe each part of the model in more detail.

Point A – Where you are today

It is no accident that the first point in the model is where you are today. The road to your potential starts with today. Your change starts not from your history or a point in the future but from where you are right now. The only place to live the better life that you seek to create is and will always be...Read More